Leading the day at $30,680 and selling to a couple who collects Ohio objects and who braved the heat of the tent, was this painted blanket chest, one of about six attributed to the Long family of Hardin County, Ohio ($4/6,000).

Review by Madelia Hickman Ring

ZOAR, OHIO — Andrew Richmond and Hollie Davis are Meander Auctions; the couple’s most recent auction on June 28 featured more than 200 lots from the collection of Jo Louise Brown, who the sale catalog described as “a fixture in historic Zoar village for decades.” The collection leaned heavily towards Ohio-made pieces, including more than 20 objects made in Zoar, and was 100 percent sold, to buyers both in Ohio and around the US.

While Richmond didn’t divulge the sale’s totals, he noted that the overall gross exceeded the sale’s aggregate high estimate by 45 percent, adding, “we were beyond pleased at how well the sale did.”

Before the sale, Richmond told Antiques and The Arts Weekly a painted blanket chest attributed to the Long family of Liberty Township, Hardin County, Ohio, circa 1840-50, was “the one to watch.” Possibly made by Tobias Long (1814-1892), the chest is one of about half a dozen known examples associated with the family, two of which are illustrated in Volume II of Jane Sikes Hageman’s self-published tome, Ohio Furniture Makers, 1790-1860 (1984). Noted in the catalog to have “the most highly developed front panels, and the only chest of this group that is known to have front panels with a ground color that is not black,” the chest inspired considerable interest.

On auction day, that interest manifested in four phone bidders and some in the room, including the chest’s ultimate purchasers, a couple who Richmond said were “serious collectors of Ohio things.” The price realized — $30,680 — was not only the highest of the day but also the highest price Richmond and Davis have obtained for any lot at Meander Auctions, which they launched in the summer of 2023. (A rare early Ohio settlement pamphlet, published in 1786 that was from the Holzer family collection, which they sold in November 2021 while they were still The Ohio Company Antiques and Art, holds their personal best record price of $70,800.)

“It had some damage but stoneware collectors seem to be much more forgiving,” Andrew Richmond noted, referencing this rare 10-gallon cobalt-decorated stoneware jar, marked “Boughner Greensboro,” that bidders topped off at $8,260 ($2/4,000).

The auction’s top lots spanned a broad range of categories and earning a second place finish, for $8,260, was a circa 1865 10-gallon stoneware jar “profusely decorated” with freehand cobalt stripes and flourishes and impressed “Boughner Greensboro.” Its catalog note referenced a smaller (four-gallon) crock by the maker that sold in summer of 2024 that had slightly less vigorous cobalt decoration. The rarity of the form excused some condition issues and Richmond noted it was purchased by a buyer he “hadn’t seen in our saleroom before,” who was successful on winning many of the other stoneware lots in the sale.

If the stoneware category was small (just 19 lots), the needlework section was even smaller, with just two examples. However, they were choice pieces and one made by Rebecca Adamson in 1825 stitched up the third-highest result of the sale, bringing in $6,490 and more than tripling its high estimate. Richmond and Davis are skilled at genealogical research and sleuthing through historical records and they deduced — by the process of elimination — that the maker was likely born in 1817, the oldest of 10 children born to Quakers Thomas (1790-1847) and Elizabeth (1796-1854) Adamson. A buyer from Ohio, bidding on the phone, had the prevailing bid.

Of the nearly two dozen pieces in the sale actually made in Zoar, a step-back cupboard, made in the third quarter of the Nineteenth Century in walnut, butternut and poplar, was dubbed “a classic Zoar cupboard” and brought $4,720. Richmond was delighted to say it was staying in Zoar, purchased by the determined partner of a Zoar descendent. “He put his paddle up until it was his. Most of the Zoar things are staying within 15 miles. It’s a community that has a really strong sense of their heritage and who are passionate about it.”

“What was made in Zoar is staying in Zoar” could be the slogan for the auction, in which most of the lots made there are staying there. This late Nineteenth Century stepback cupboard led the group and was purchased for $4,720 by a determined partner of a Zoar descendant, who currently lives in Zoar ($800-$1,200).

Though a pair of hollow-cut silhouettes of a seated couple were not made in Zoar — Richmond noted someone thought they had been made in Philadelphia — they are also staying in the community, with a buyer who paid $3,068.

Fewer than a dozen lots of silver were on offer and the section topped off at $2,714, for a Wallace sterling silver flatware set, in the Normandie pattern.

A handful of quilts — 15 to be exact — crossed the block, with the significant majority exceeding their high estimates. A Star Spangled Banner quilt, made around 1865 by Nancy Laughlin Miller of Sarasville, Noble County, Ohio, had red and blue appliquéd piecing, elaborate quilting and had been exhibited (and published in the accompanying catalog) in “Ohio Quilts: A Living Tradition,” which took place at the Canton (Ohio) Museum of Art in 1984. An out-of-state buyer took it to $2,618.

Also leaving the state for $1,298 was a leather fireman’s helmet, dated 1866, which was made by A. Wilson of New York and featured a finial in the shape of a greyhound.

Meander Auctions’ next sale will be on August 30 and will feature, among other things, Part IV of the Virginia Gunn Quilt Collection.

Prices quoted include the buyer’s premium as reported by the auction house. For information, 740-760-0012 or www.meanderauctions.com.